Traders Cup - Dundalk

The highest turnout of the year saw Niall (the skipper), Anto, Ciaran, Colin, Fiachra, and Ben turn up in Dundalk to race. The race was open and handicapped with the C pack starting 4 min. behind the juniors and 4 min. ahead of Bs. The A riders caught Anto's group early on, they had slowed to a crawl waiting for them. This meant that by the time we had caught the Juniors, about lap 3 of 12, we had opened up the gap on the chasing A/B riders. The C and Junior pack stayed together at a steady pace but the good lads of the A/B group split after many attacks and started chasing us down.

With about 3 laps to go we were caught by about 20 riders some of whom came straight through us with Fiachra managing to join the back of the break but at the front it split again with about 8 top riders getting away and keeping a 40sec gap till the end. Fiachra rode especially well after coming back from the break he stayed riding at the front and contested the sprint. With only one unplaced C prize the organisers were chasing in and making it very difficult to get anything.

The skipper rode his best race in the UCD colours riding at the front until about 2 laps to go. Anto rode well in the chasing group (groupetto) and Colin and Ben used the race for training purposes.

A good start to the racing but still no prizes. You cant expect perfection, all you can expect is progress.